A Music-related blog containing information and commentary of my favorite music, as well as some choice downloads of quality, hard-to-find music (unofficial releases, ROIO's, concert bootlegs, etc.) available on the web.

When we last left Tom, he was on a brief tour with his re-vamped old group Mudcrutch, following the release of their album, in 2008. Following that Spring mini-tour, Tom returned to The Heartbreakers for a more conventional tour with The Heartbreakers throughout thwe rest of 2008. In 2009, they head to the studio to record a new album, Tom's first with The Heartbreakers in nearly 8 years (Last DJ). But for this new album, Tom had a little different plan. This would be more of a bluesy, R&B-oriented record, with a looser structure, more jamming, and recorded as much as possible as Live in the studio (no layering, overdubs, etc.). The result was Mojo (2010). The response to the album depended on what style of Petty you preferred, those that like the bluesier style loved it, while those that like more catchy hooks, harmonies, and choruses, were less impressed. The band toured through the summer of 2010 in support of the album, and hen released a single-disc live album from the Mojo tour in 2011, Mojo Tour 2010, but otherwise, pretty much took 2011 off from recording and touring. They returned to the road in 2012, for both a US and European tour. Here is an excellent-sounding soundboard recording from a summer festival in Lucca, Italy. Overall, the setlist is fairly routine, but does include a few unique features, including 2 new songs from Mojo ('Good Enough' and 'I Should Have Known It'), bringing back a couple older songs that hadn't been played in awhile ('Here Comes My Girl' and 'Something Big', and one rare song, only played live, and only at a handful of shows, 'Two Men Talking', a rarity designed for jammin' and solos. Overall, another great show worth hearing.

Tracklist:
1. Listen to Her Heart
2. You Wreck Me
3. I Won't Back Down
4. Here Comes My Girl
5. Handle with Care
6. Good Enough
7. Oh Well
8. Something Big
9. Don't Come Around Here No More
10. Band intro
11. Free Fallin'
12. It's Good to Be King
13. Carol
14. Learning to Fly
15. Yer So Bad
16. I Should Have Known It
17. Refugee
18. Runnin' Down a Dream
19. Mary Jane's Last Dance
20. Two Men Talking
21. American Girl

Continuing with Tom Petty's musical history and tour chronology: Inspired by all the old stories and memories stirred up during the making of the Petty Documentary film Runnin' Down a Dream (2007), Tom wanted to re-connect with his old bandmates from Mudcrutch, his earlier pre-Heartbreakers band in Gainesville, FL. But more than just re-connect and reminisce, Tom wanted to plat with them again, and decided to reunite the band and make new music together. So, Tom took the very unusual step of leaving his current, very successful band The Heartbreakers (at least temporarily), to re-form his earlier, unsuccessful band, Mudcrutch. Now, it helped that the core of Mudcrutch,Tom's 2 closest friends and bandmates for over 30 years, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, were also the core of The Heartbreakers. The other components were Tom Leadon (brother of Ex-eagle Bernie Leadon), co-lead guitarist and vocalist, and Randall Marsh on drums. For Mudcrutch, Petty returned to his former role with the band, as bass player and vocalist (no guitar at all). Mudcrutch had more of a country-rock, folk-rock background, as well as traditional rock n roll, and that is what they went for. I've told the story of Mudcrutch before, so for more on the early days of the band, see here and here. Anyway, in 2007 they reconvened to work on a new album featuring a mix of old (traditional) and new songs. The result was the self-titled album, Mudcrutch, released in 2008. Although Petty wrote and sang lead on most of the songs, Tom Leadon and Benmont Tench each wrote and sang lead on at least one song. Although the album was more 'country' than anythng Petty had ever released, and contained multiple songs with a bluegrass feel, the album was a major success, and was bolstered by the single 'Scare Easy'. Petty with Mudcrutch only did a very limited tour (only covering several dates in in California) that year (2008). All Mudcrutch shows were at smaller venues, and only Mudcrutch songs were played (that is, none of Petty's more famous hits mixed in). Later that year, a Live EP, Extended Play Live! was released featuring a handful of songs from that tour. After that, Petty returned to his 'day job' working with the Heartbreakers, and that seemed to be the end of Mudcrutch again, a wonderful little musical diversion, than back to business. However, it worked so well that several years later, Tom went back to his old band once again, for another new album and another round of fun with Mudcrutch 2 (2016).
Anyway, here is one of those shows from the very short Mudcrutch CA tour in 2008. This is an audience recording, but a very good one at that, very nice sound. They play their entire album, as well as some other classic roots rock covers. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers(with Special Guest Stevie Nicks)2006-09-2130th Anniversary Concert,O'Connell Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
FM Broadcast Recording, very good quality
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and Mp3 (320 kbps) versions
(Update of previous post to now provide this show in lossless as well as mp3)

Continuing with our Tom Petty retrospective: After The Last DJ album and tour (2002-2003), Petty's next album project was another solo album, his third, and for this one he went back to his Traveling Wilburys co-hort, friend, and producer Jeff Lynne, who he had not worked with as a producer since Into The Great Wide Open (1991). And for this album, instead of using the Heartbreakers and other guest musicians, Petty, guitarist Mike Campbell, and Lynne actually played all the instruments on all the tracks. The result was Highway Companion (2006), another quality album, although perhaps not quite up to the heights of Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, but a very good album nonetheless. Also during this time, Petty and the band were working with Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich on a retrospective documentary chronicling the history of Petty and The Heartbreakers, to mark the 30th Anniversary of the band. The film culminated in what was designated as the 30th Anniversary Concert, held in Petty's hometown, Gainesville, FL, and which also featured Stevie Nicks as a special guest. This concert, which was broadcast live on the radio, and also filmed, was later included in some deluxe versions of the film on DVD box sets. The film was eventually released in 2007, titled Runnin' Down a Dream, premiered at the New York Film Festival, and had a running time of nearly 4 hrs. It is a great document of the band, contains many interviews and great concert footage, and actually needed the 4 hr runtime to do justice with the band and its history. Note: it was in making the documentary, and reliving all the old stories of the band, that rekindled Petty's interest in his original band Mudcrutch, and lead to him reviving Mudcrutch as his next musical project. So, anyway, here is the Gainesville 30th Anniversary concert (which I have posted previously, but now also available in a FLAC version). More info on the concert is available in the original post here. Notably, Petty only included one song, 'Saving Grace', from the newly released solo album (Highway Companion) at this or any of the other shows around this time, as he apparently wanted to highlight his history with the band, and other than Mike, the Heartbreakers were not included on the new album sessions. However, he did include several songs from his other solo albums, as well as other songs with Stevie. Overall, a fine show, and a very enthusiastic hometown crowd.

About This Blog

This site respects and supports artists and artist rights. Please support the artists by purchasing their officially released music through normal channels. The music files, information, and downloads linked here represent unreleased recordings that are not available through any official channels. This music is meant to supplement (and not replace) the currently available official releases for fans that want to explore deeper into an artists repertoire than is possible through official releases only (through demos, outtakes, alternate versions, and concert recordings). The music linked here is presented for sampling and evaluation purposes. By all means, if you enjoy the music from any artists represented here, please buy their official releases. All music files linked here are freely available elsewhere on the internet and no music files are stored at this site. I hope you find new music to enjoy here.

If any artists or representatives of the artists object to anything I have posted here, please send me an email (address below) letting me know and I will promptly remove it (I only request that you contact me directly rather than pursuing any DMCA notification or legal action).

If anyone has any other questions, comments, or information you would like to send me or the blog via email, here is the address. Of course, for comments directly related to particular posts, please use the individual post comments (and I would love to get more comments on the posts, not just to get thanks, but to get more feedback on just what people think about the various music offered here). But if there are other things not related to specific posts, or that you don't want available for all to see, by all means send an email to the blog.